This is a Story (Of What We Are and What We Can Be)
by ghibli22
Summary: In a world where everyone has wings, both Kaidoh Kaoru and Inui Sadaharu find that their wings bring them more trouble then they'd like. This is a story of the challenges they face, how they help each other through them, and how tennis isn't the only common ground they have. Eventual Inukai with possible others. First Prince of Tennis fic.


**Prologue **

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For as long as he could remember Kaidoh had hated his wings. His whole life they had been nothing but trouble. When he was a little kid they'd grown in slower than everyone else's, so slow that he was still wearing closed-back shirts while everyone else in his second grade class had been wearing normal shirts for at least half a year. Though he wouldn't ever admit it now, he'd come home from school crying more then once because of their teasing. Whenever that happened his mother would take him aside, make him a cup of tea with honey and settle him on her lap, her own light brown wings coming around him protectively.

"Don't you worry, Kaoru," she would whisper to him, "Your wings will come in soon, and when they do they'll be more wonderful than any of theirs."

Nowadays Kaidoh wished more than anything that she'd been wrong. Because when his wings finally did start to grow in, he'd yearned for the days when they were nothing more than a dream and a mother's promise. Because as Kaidoh's wings grew, it was quickly apparent that his plumage was white. Pure white.

Of all the seven billion people in the world only one in every four thousand had white wings. Many of those with white wings had undertones of other colors, most often grey but sometimes red or brown. Most movie stars had white wings, models, rock stars, as well as some of the most famous world leaders of all time. Gandhi had pure white wings, as did Napoleon, George Washington, and Winston Churchill. Since only one in every ten of people with white wings had pure white, the less color you had the higher society held you. Having white wings was like having a ticket to success handed to you on a silver platter. Give it time and the advertising companies or modeling agencies or movie directors would show up at your door, offering you the world and more if you'd only come and work for their label.

Kaidoh hated it all. With a passion. He'd grown so accustomed to either being mocked or ignored he didn't know how to cope with all of the attention he was suddenly getting. The boys would stare in awe and compare their own plumage out in the hall while the girls would come up to him while he was trying to eat his lunch and coo at him. They'd beg to touch them, reaching out with hands stained with gel pen from drawing angel wings on their notebooks instead of taking notes in them. So he'd tried taking his food to the roof, but still they followed him, offering him pieces of food from their own lunches instead of eating it themselves.

He just couldn't handle all of the attention. And that was when the hissing started. Just as a way to try to make them leave him alone. He had never asked for any of them to like him and he didn't want them to. He didn't even like most of them. He hissed because two weeks after his wings had grown in he'd seen a program on TV about animal defense mechanisms, and the hiss was the one he could most easily imitate. But still they wouldn't leave. And he hated it.

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Four months till he was supposed to graduate from fifth grade Kaidoh found himself standing in front of the mirror, shirtless and scowling at his reflection. His wings had grown in more fully by then, now more proportionate to his body. They twitched occasionally as he glared at them, a soft hiss escaping from his lips before he looked down at the fabric in his hand. It was a long, dark green strip, left over from when his mother was going through a craft phase. He just hoped it would be long enough.

Taking a deep breath he tucked his wings in as closely as they would go, pulling the fabric around his torso and tying them down. Around and around and around again he went, until he couldn't see anymore of the horrible white color. Tying it off with fumbling fingers he quickly grabbed his school uniform, slipping it on and looking at himself in the mirror again. Under the full uniform you could barely even see the outline of his wings, just like it used to be. Kaidoh sighed in relief, breath coming a little more shallow now that they were all tied down. But it would be with it in the end.

The next day at school his new so-called 'friends' hardly noticed him. They walked in to class, took one look and then sat back in his seat. Kaidoh allowed himself a small smile before hunching down and taking his notes for the day. His plan was working perfectly, and for the first time in a very long time he had a moment of peace to himself. So what if his shoulders were getting a little stiff? He didn't have to deal with anyone he didn't want to.

Everything had been fine until PE class, when the restrictions on his breathing and the heat from the exercise ended up in him waking up in the nurse's office with no memory of how he got there. According to the nurse, an older woman with wrinkly hands, he'd fainted. There was a cool towel on his head, his shirt was off and the stretch of fabric was pooled on a chair next to the bed. And if he hadn't already been stretched out on the thin bed provided by the school he was sure he would have keeled over from the sheer embarrassment of it all.

Kaidoh spent the next hour curled onto his side, angrily clutching what he thought had been his ticket to freedom and waiting for his mother to come and pick him up. They didn't say anything to each other when she came in, although he did take her hand when they walked back to the car. It wasn't until they got home that she took him aside, guiding him to sit next to her on the sofa and taking the fabric from him.

"What were you trying to do, Kaoru?" she asked softly.

Balling his hands into fists on his legs he glared at the ground, shoulders shaking, "I hate them!" he said, "I hate my wings and I hate everyone in that school!"

He scowled, anger coursing through him now that it was free to do so, "None of them cared one lick about me before they grew in, and now they won't leave me alone. Just because my wings are a different color than theirs! I don't care if its supposed to be a good thing and everyone is always telling me that I'm so lucky to have them! Its just racism! That's all it is!"

Crossing his arms he glanced at his mother, anger diffusing a little at the sympathetic look on her face, "You're not angry?"

"How could I be upset when you're obviously so unhappy?" she reached out, wrapping an arm around his shoulders, "I'm sorry I never noticed, Kaoru. I always treasured your wings as a gift, but you never did ask for them and its your choice who you show them to."

He shivered when he felt her fingers on the feathers, "They make special covers. we can get you a pair or two. I just wished you'd come to me before you'd collapsed."

Kaidoh blushed, "I just wanted them hidden!"

His mother laughed, "I know, sweetie. We'll get you some covers and I promise by next year your classmates won't remember you had them."

"Really?"

"Well, maybe not completely. White wings are pretty special."

She smiled gently at him, picking up the length of fabric he'd used, "But we can look into sending you to a different middle school then the one everyone else is going to. I know there are a few in the area but all of the parents have the same one recommended to them anyway. Now what should we do with this I wonder..."

Raising one thin eyebrow she lifted it to his head. Kaidoh blinked up at her, confused, "What good is it? It was just left over, right?"

"I'm sure we can find some use for it. Just leave everything to me, Kaoru," Giving him a quick peck on the cheek which he wiped away quickly she stood, taking the green cloth with her. He remained on the sofa for a few minutes, reaching back once to touch his wings before heading off to his room to get his homework done. The next day when he got back from school his mother had left two sets of wing coverings on his bed, along with a new green bandana.

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Author's Notes

1) This is my first time writing for PoT so please be gentle

2) This story will eventually be Inui/Kaidoh. Trust me, it will get there

3) I have no idea how Japanese school systems work

4) This is just a plain Wing!verse fic. They're not angels... everyone just has wings.

Hope you enjoy the rest of it :)


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